After returning home from New Zealand, regurly surfing Raglan, Piha, Murders, Gisborne and Taranaki i've started hitting HM in a big way, but much to my disbelief the surf can be really poor and messy and most times blown out , when is the best time to surf there. Also what would you say the best spot is, is it the trap, and what about pollution, where are the cleanest surf beaches?

Really frustrated!

Just a quick reply... but I'll write more later.

Hells Mouth is often blown out!!, but can be good.

The Trap is miles away from Hells Mouth, but there is a break just around the corner from HM that is better. The Trap can be OK, but is definately not THE BEST wave in Wales.

Try Again!!!

Where are you based?

Al.

I am based in Flintshire.

Where by is the better break by HM and where would you say is the best surf spot in wales, distance is no object really, I would travel from Auckland to Gisborne/Taranaki when it was cranking and that was a long trek bordering 6 hours at times. Shit you work all week so going for a good surf at the weekend really makes life worth living.

Can you give me the directions to the better break by hm.

Cheers bro

OK...Porth Ceiriad is better than Hells Mouth on its day. Its justa round the corner, so take a look on an OS map for directions.

Have you looked at the beach guide on this site? It pretty much tells you about most of the surf spots in Wales (with a few secrets missed out of course!).

The BEST surf spot in Wales is a difficult question. I know of a few places that could qualify, and that can be world class on their day, but they only break once or twice a year so wouldn't be much good for you. HM is fairly consistent, but the most consistent breaks in Wales are probably Freshwater West in Pembrokeshire or Llangenith on the Gower, The Gower reefs can be pretty consistent too and pretty spectacular on the right day.

However, if distance is no problem you'd be better off heading down the motorway towards North Devon or Cornwall, which is MUCH more consistent and probably wouldn't take that much longer for you to get to than pembrokehsire or the Gower would. And of course Devon and Cornwall offer quite a bit more options as far as the surf goes.

Does any of that help?

Al.

Yeah, yeah, sweet as.

Any advice on Aberffraw and toen beaches, also heard there is a bit of a secret spot near Caernarvon, can't imagine though due to it being on the northeast side, could be wrong though.

Aberffraw is a really nice beach. Quite a long (but nice) walk across the common to get too, and not that conssitent, but it can get some good quality waves breaking on the sandbars formed by the River Ffraw.

Toen?? Do you mean Tywyn?? Once agin not that consistent and not actually that good either. Poor quality beach break waves most of the time. Of course, it can have its day if theres a nice big groundswell, the wind has some Easterly in it and the sandbanks are cooperating.

Not sure about the Caernarvon secret spot you mention, but Dinas Dinlle just south of Caernarvan picks up a fair bit of swell and offers seom good beachbreak waves on occasion. Theres also nefyn furthe SW again, which although not such a good swell puller as Dinas Dinlle, when it does get surf its a better quality wave.

Al.